OpeOluwani Akintayo
17 August 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The Nigerian government has set a lofty target for the Rural Electrification (RE) programme, according to a document titled Rural Electrification Strategy and Implementation Plan (RESIP) seen obtained by SweetcrudeReports.
According to the plan, the Federal Government of Nigeria said it will make reliable electricity available to75% of the population (rural and urban) by 2021 and at least 10% of the renewable energy mix by 2025.
The government also said it will strive to achieve 90% electricity access by 2030.
“Pursuing this target is part of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s overall objective of providing access to electricity for all Nigerians in order to stimulate economic development and improve the quality of rural life. This will be accomplished by encouraging a range of service providers to deliver cheaper, cleaner electricity”, the government explained.
In order to support these objectives, the Federal Government of Nigeria said it is committed to improving the standards of service, the affordability, and the financial sustainability of rural service operators.
Another reason for the project is that more than half of the populations are rural dwellers with low levels of electrification.
“Perhaps more than 70,000,000 rural Nigerians lack access to reliable electricity supply. For Federal Government of Nigeria electrification targets to be achieved by 2020 and 2030, it will require that both urban and rural electrification rate must increase at an unprecedented scale”, the RESIP document revealed.
According to the government, only if by 2020 urban electrification reaches 95% and rural electrification reaches 60%, can the national target of 75% be achieved.
The government said this will only happen by connecting more than 10,000,000 additional rural households (assuming 7 persons per household).
The new generating capacity required to serve the additional domestic and non-domestic rural demand is around 6,000MW (this is more than the current capacity of the entire Nigerian power system).
Achieving this would take the rural electrification rate to 60%.
Total capital costs to achieve this rural ambition by 2020 are estimated in the range of N1,440 billion (US$9 billion).